SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977 to 2007.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISMI was replaced by Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna.
History
Since the end of World War II, Italian intelligence agencies have been reorganized many times and last SISDE and SISMI from 1977 to 2007, in an attempt to increase their effectiveness and bring them more fully under civilian control.The agency was established as part of a broader reform of the Italian intelligence community, which represented the latest in a long string of government attempts to effectively manage Italy's intelligence agencies.
- In 1977, with Legislative Act n.801, the SISMI was created after a former chief of the SID, Vito Miceli, was arrested in 1974 for "conspiring against the State". Thus the intelligence agencies were reorganized in a democratic attempt. This re-organization mainly consisted of:
- * The split of SID, the intelligence agency at that time, into two separate agencies with different roles: SISDE and SISMI.
- * The creation of CESIS, with a coordination role between the two intelligence agencies and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
- * The creation of the Parliamentary Committee, COPACO, to oversee the activities of the two agencies.
- Since 1 August 2007, with Legislative Act n.124 of 08/03/2007, following the reform of the Italian intelligence agencies, SISDE, SISMI and CESIS were replaced respectively by AISI, AISE and DIS, and the COPACO was granted additional oversight and control powers.
Admiral Bruno Branciforte was SISMI's last director, in charge until 3 August 2007.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007 the military intelligence was eliminated, and the Italian intelligence was divided into internal and foreign.
Mission
SISMI was responsible for intelligence and security activities involving the military defence of Italy and for the integrity of the Italian State.SISMI reported to the Italian Ministry of Defense and operated both inside and outside of Italy's borders. It was feasible that domestic Intelligence and Security, which normally fell under SISDE's jurisdiction, also involved SISMI, unless the security threat came from organized crime.
Its duties included:
- clearing activities with the Prime Minister;
- nominating the Director of the Service and his assistants under CIIS supervision.
The directors
- General Giuseppe Santovito
- General Nino Lugaresi
- Admiral Fulvio Martini
- General Sergio Luccarini
- General Luigi Ramponi
- General Cesare Pucci
- General Sergio Siracusa
- Admiral Gianfranco Battelli
- General Nicolò Pollari
- Admiral Bruno Branciforte
Motto and logo
Its coat of arms was granted by a decree of the President of the Republic dated 28 January 2004.
Recent controversies
Nicola Calipari and Giuliana Sgrena
In 2005, Nicola Calipari, a high-ranking SISMI hostage negotiator, was killed at a U.S. Army checkpoint in Baghdad by Mario Lozano, purportedly after a communication breakdown between the Italian intelligence community and the occupying forces.Yellowcake forgery
In 2005, SISMI was implicated in the yellowcake forgery scandal. The forged documents purporting to detail an Iraqi purchase of yellowcake uranium from Niger were given to a "cutout" named Rocco Martino by a colonel in SISMI, Antonio Nucera. The head of SISMI, after claiming his agency received the documents from external sources, met with then-Deputy National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, on 9 September 2002.Reportedly, the SISMI director vouched for the documents' authenticity at the meeting; as a result, the White House attempted to insert a reference to uranium from Africa in President Bush's upcoming address to the United Nations, scheduled for 12 September 2002. The CIA removed the reference 24 hours before the address was given. In bypassing the CIA, Pollari ignored the established protocol for contacts between Italian and American intelligence agencies.
President Bush later used the same discredited information when delivering his January 2003 State of the Union address.
Imam Rapito
In July 2006, the Italian judiciary power issued arrest warrants for several SISMI officials involved in the joint CIA-SISMI operation resulting in the unlawful extraordinary rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, which SISMI Director Pollari had formally denied in testimony before a committee of the national legislature. Among these were:- former Deputy Director Marco Mancini
- General Gustavo Pignero, agency chief for Northern Italy
- Mancini's aide Giuseppe Ciorra
- Pio Pompa, an aide to SISMI Director Nicolò Pollari
- former Trieste Station Chief Lorenzo Pillinini
- former Padua Station Chief Marco Iodice
- Milan Station Chief Maurizio Regondi
On 16 February 2007, an Italian judge ordered twenty-six Americans and five Italians to stand trial over the case on 8 June 2007.
As part of the judiciary investigation, a SISMI-run black operation targeting centre-left politician Romano Prodi and a vast domestic surveillance program was uncovered. Pompa prevailed upon the newspaper Libero to print allegations that Prodi, when serving as European Commissioner, had authorized the CIA prison flights via Italy. Targeted in the surveillance program were La Repubblica reporters Giuseppe D'Avanzo and Carlo Bonini, who broke the yellowcake forgery story.